France's disruption of UNSC meeting on Yugoslavia outrageous

Russia expresses indignation over the unprofessional behavior of the French delegation that has disrupted the UN Security Council meeting on NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said in a commentary.

"We are outraged by the incorrect and unprofessional behavior of France, which is one of the ‘five’ permanent members of the Security Council with a special historical obligation to comply with the Council's provisional rules of procedure and other norms, developed over many years on the basis of mutual respect and consideration of interests," she said.

Zakharova explained that on March 25, the French delegation to the UN in New York, acting with the support of other Westerners, disrupted a meeting of the Security Council approved in the officially adopted program of UN Security Council activities for this month, timed to coincide with the 25th anniversary of NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia.

"For our part, we made concessions and agreed to invite as a rapporteur a representative of the NATO secretariat, an organization directly responsible for the destruction of Yugoslavia and the creation of a hotbed of instability in the Balkans," she continued. "We regret that the Japanese presidency of the UN Security Council succumbed to the French and held a procedural vote on an agenda item in favor of which Russia, China and Algeria voted, while the other members of the Council abstained for various reasons, including pressure from Western delegations."